Okay, straighten me out. Everything that is not 9.4 "isn't supported by" Emuforums, which is why I'm posting here. I get that they are Betas, I don't get why or how or what's the diff. Which is the latest? Which should I be using for most compatibility? Why does svn stand for anyways?

I also tried Playground, but I've no idea what revision it was, or if there are revisions? All I know is it didn't work as well for me, mainly there were too many options and I needed to start simpler.

Played FFX, no complaints aside from I forgot how terrible easy it is. Persona 4 is meh right now. Suikoden 3 is mega slow, lots of artifacts. FFX-2 is chugging along alright.

Sidenote - I forgot my speakers, so for now I'm just using NullSound.

We will start with FFX-2:

I get between 45 and 60 FPS. It's nice and playable and the slowdowns are at the same place where my Deuce would chug.

But when I open my inventory screen or abilities page or anywhere there is a list with a cursor (buying from merchants), the game chugs down to less than 20 FPS, and I don't know why.

So I tried GSdx 883 SSSE3 0.1.13 (latest? I've no idea seriously people clean up the numbers) and the menu thing works fine. Pretty good FPS again somewhere around 45-60. Except in battle it drops to about 30.

I've messed around with filtering and interlacing and all that for each plugin, but nothing really fixes the problem or improves the FPS. And I'm not near systematic enough to go through each option, check, test, uncheck, test, next check, test, etc. Especially when there has got to be someone out there that has already done this.

I haven't really tried the speedhacks and such, mainly because I wanted to understand what is up before I start randomly checking boxes.

So, people more wise than I, which is the latest PCSX2 that I should be using? Is beta the best, or stick with the 'official' versions? Or can't you say due to some unknown law regarding which version we are allowed to discuss using?

And what is up with my FPSness? I know some games just work better with some plugins, but why would one not be able to do menus of all things, while the other battles?

Would it be easier to just screencap all my settings? Will do upon request.

First delete everything PCSX2 related.
Download the PCSX2 playground from www.pcsx2.net.
Download the latest plugins from the plugin section of our site again.
Then,grab the latest SVN snapshot from here: http://forums.pcsx2.net/thread-3716.html
and use that exe instead of the one you had from the playground binary you downloaded initially.

Thanks for the quick reply. You know what is up, Bosit, I'm glad you got here first.

So Playground is the guts and the SVN snapshot is the brain? When updating in the future, do I just look for a higher number snapshot? Or since Playground is now a part of 9.5 am I just going to be looking for that?

I'm off to config my new downloads. Thanks for setting me straight. I'm sure you have that list copy pasted out a document.

Playground team has merged with official team, so there's no more playground version, but just an official one.

Side note: now that playground has disappeared, maybe a sticky would help
all newbies that come and ask where is playground ?
I see that in "old forum" there's still a playground section,
not surprising there's still confusion:http://forums.ngemu.com/pcsx2-playground/

I turned all the speedhacks on and things speed up except for the problem areas for each Plugin. CPU config has everything checked. Advanced options are all set to chops and zeros and checked (everything that says 'speed').

I've searched through every post on these forums with "final fantasy" in the thread, but most problems are with missing textures or slow FMVs. Am I hitting the best I can with ZeroGS and just have to suck it up through the menus?

Hmm sounds like the dreaded GSdx hating for Radeon cards...that must be the reason for that huge slowdown you get.
I think that's the best you can get...2,4 Ghz is still low for most games with PCSX2 and FFX-2 in particular is a demanding one.Maybe you can make it work with ZeroGS by tweaking some of the advanced options on and off

Are all the boxes on the righthand side of ZeroGS pertinent to all games? That is, even though they say they work for one or two in specific, will they effect all in some way? So one of the random checks for Xenosaga may be the solution to the menu thing?

And wheee on Radeon cards. Switched off of Nvidia and now I can't remember why I would do such a thing.